This is so freaking cool! Nikon, everyone’s favorite camera company (that is unless you’re a Canon), puts on this competition every year for Photomicrography, or images viewed through a microscope. Immediately that should tinge up some of those “holy schmoly I’m gonna see something neat!” hairs on your neck; mine are located right next to the “Terrible Smell from My Past” hairs, so I always get a little bit of extra freakout. From Nikon’s site about the contest:

Small World is regarded as the leading forum for showcasing the beauty and complexity of life as seen through the light microscope. The Photomicrography Competition is open to anyone with an interest in microscopy and photography (or videography). The video competition, entitled Small World, encompasses any movie or digital time-lapse photography taken through the microscope.

There are two contests – Small World for Photomicrography and Small World in Motion for Micrography for video subjects.

Dr. Jennifer Peters’ and Dr. Michael Taylor’s winning image of the blood-brain barrier in a live zebrafish embryo perfectly demonstrates the intersection of art and science that drives the Nikon Small World Competition.

The blood-brain barrier plays a critical role in neurological function and disease. Drs. Peters and Taylor, developed a transgenic zebrafish to visualize the development of this structure in a live specimen. By doing so, this model proves that not only can we image the blood-brain barrier, but we can also genetically and chemically dissect the signaling pathways that modulate the blood-brain barrier function and development.

To achieve this image, Peters and Taylor used a maximum intensity projection of a series of images acquired in the z plane. The images were first pseudo-colored with a rainbow palette based on depth so that the coloring scheme would be both visually appealing and provide spatial information. In doing so, Peters and Taylor captured an image that Peters says“not only captures the beauty of nature, but is also topical and biomedically relevant.”

Both Peters and Taylor have more than ten years of imaging experience. Peters is an imaging scientist in the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s Light Microscopy Core Facility and Taylor is an Assistant Member in the Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics at St. Jude Children’s Research.

Subject Matter: Recruitment of neutrophils to the site of laser damage in mouse inguinal lymph node

This video shows the immune response in the lymph node of a mouse, when activated by a laser. Specifically, it shows an efficient innate immune reaction in the lymph node, which typically has been studied for the development of adaptive immune response.

Noah is currently in the top ten for Philips’ Light World Tourcontest, and he’s in ninth place. He needs our help! JimOnLight.com supports Noah Craft in the contest, and if you haven’t voted yet, I urge you to vote for Noah!

Do you love to talk about light? Drawing on the inspiration of the surroundings, one lucky lighting professional will hit the road, travel to the lighting hotspots of the world and take the rest of us along for the ride. You’ll be travelling and staying in a dozen or so cities over three months, seeing all the local sights, dropping in on events and hitting up the best that each city has offer in light. You’ll be totally immersed. And you’ll keep the rest of us biting our nails with plenty of videos and pictures of your adventures on the blog.

When you’re on Noah’s Light World Tour page, click on any of the voting methods and support Noah Craft for the Philips Light World Tour! RSS feed readers ALONE, you could help Noah win this thing!

Good luck dude! If you win, you better rock the *** out of it! We’re rooting for you!

More LDI 2010 shots – Adriana and Rick Hutton from InLight Gobos’ booth in the TMB Village this year. InLight Gobos gave away a 32GB iPod Touch to the lucky miss Megan from Hoghes Theatrical. I drew the name and InLight Gobos rocked the prize!

ALSO, in a glorious moment of success for breasts worldwide, InLight Gobos had a great thing running for Breast Cancer Awareness Month – they offered a $5 donation for every gobo purchased, and matched each donation. InLight Gobos just donated $2500 to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure! You go, guys! I personally thank you for your donation for my friend Kory Jackson, who passed away a few years ago from breast cancer – she would have been thrilled for your support!

Ladies and gentlemen, the public has spoken in the JimOnLight.com Fall Scholarship Contest! Congratulations to TEAM DULUTH, who takes first place by popular vote. First runner up is Johanna-Mai Vihalem who is currently in Paris, and the second runner up is Daphne Mir, everyone’s favorite budding LD out of SoCal. Congratulations to each of you who entered – each one of you is going to receive a 4Wall Entertainment t-shirt and a box of goodies from me.

Winners, I’ll be in touch shortly to get relevant information!

I’d like to take a moment to comment on and add a little surprise to the contest. I put the donated scholarship funds and my contribution to the pool out to vote by the JimOnLight.com Community as a whole. The JimOnLight.com readership is full of very intelligent and influential people who are all out there shaping and advancing the industries of light – researchers, designers, scientists, laser engineers, LED manufacturers and developers, production technicians, lighting directors, solid-state lighting scientists, opticians, doctors, physicists, and many other professionals read the blog each day. The reason that JimOnLight.com is able to do anything for the community is DUE TO the investment of the community into the future of our beloved industries. I trust the readership to choose. Far be it for me to take seven light lovers’ videos and make a decision on whose passionate plea for light was better than any other – I got warmth from each and every video. I am inspired by each and every one of you. So much, in fact, that I am going to give each of you a post on JimOnLight.com for your video over the next month.

I want to add one more mention to the contest – after watching all of these videos, I felt like I needed to recognize one video for its production and creativity. I enjoyed every one of these videos – and I plan on having more of these contests to give back to the lighting industries. Overall, on a production aspect, I want to recognize Nik Robalino‘s video for being the most well produced. Nik, please tell your crew that I think they did an excellent job. I’m working on putting something special together for you and your crew.

Contest participants – I’ll be in touch shortly to get addresses and all of that so I can send you each some good stuff. Great job to everyone – you should be ridiculously proud! Thank you to the JimOnLight.com Community for participating. More to come!

It’s here, everybody – the final day of voting in the JimOnLight.com Fall Scholarship Contest! We’ve got pretty excellent videos submitted – each and every one – and I am excited to see how the industry votes! The lighting industries have really reached out for this one, and there are a lot of people to thank. The voting ends tonight, at midnight CST. Get your votes in before then!

MORE good news, in addition to the outreach that has taken place already – David Johnson from Live Design/LDI has contributed a FREE TICKET to the 2011 Broadway Lighting Master Classes in May 2011! This will go to the first place winner of the contest.

We’re going to have a lot more of these scholarship contests – with the economy the way it is right now and the way that Universities are raising tuition and fees on what seems a monthly schedule these days, it is up to us as people who are dedicated to the lighting industries to make sure the future is sustained. You heard it here first.

Holy cow, holy cow, followed by holy cow. If this contest were a Scorpions song, it would be “here I am, rock you in quite the same fashion as that of a hurricane.” I have received some outstanding news, people – news that affects this contest for the positive!

Some of the industry’s most future conscious companies have stepped up and offered some additional funds for the JimOnLight.com Fall Scholarship Contest – which means I’m able to offer MORE PRIZE MONEY for the winner! Also, something that rocks pretty hard, I am now able to offer a RUNNER UP prize!

The web’s favorite fox, the Fantastic David Fox from the lighting team at KA in Las Vegas, Larry Zoll and the great people over at Zero88, and the monumentally awesome team over at SeaChanger have offered some funds to boost the prizes! Now, I am able to give a $1000 first place prize (and two tickets to see KA in Las Vegas, good for one year through Mr. Fox) and a $500 Runner Up prize, which ALSO features two tickets to KA, good for one year!

UPDATE: 4Wall Entertainment has just contributed $250 to the pot, making the first prize $1000 USD! 4Wall is also giving ALL OF THE WINNERS a 4Wall t-shirt! Everyone who entered wins!

UPDATE: Rick and Adri at InLight Gobos has contributed $250 to the contest pool – now I can offer a Second Runner Up prize of $250!

The outpouring of support that I have gotten for you excellent contest participants from the lighting industry is enough to make me choke up a bit. This is why I love our lighting industries – because they care about our future.

If you’re from a lighting company and want to contribute to the winners’ prize packages in any way, please contact me via the contact form or by emailing jim [AT] jimonlight [DOTCOM]. I’m getting several emails a day about contributing – I’ll make sure to publish your name and company link. This is all about our industry’s next rising stars. Help out if you can!

Ladies and Gentlemen, the JimOnLight.com Fall Scholarship Contest entry period has ended, and we have had excellent entries. Excellent! So much, in fact, that I have decided to post all of them for your voting and enjoyment!

These people have taken it upon themselves to tell you, the world, about what they love about light. I am honored, excited, and overjoyed for you to see these entries.

First up: Johanna-Mai Vihalem’s love of light. Go, Johanna!

Now, Daphne Mir tells the world about her rise to rockstar lighting designer. Go, Daphne!

Jeff Handke, tell us what you love about light. GO!

It’s time for the men of The Duluth Crew to tell us why they love light. DO IT!

Drew Carter, it’s time to SHOW THE WORLD WHAT YOU GOT!

Nik Robalino, tell the world what you LOVE about LIGHT!

Last but not least, Zack Weigand shows the world what he loves about light. GO ZACK!

Okay internet – your turn. In ONE WEEK from tomorrow, on FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2010 by MIDNIGHT, a winner will be delcared, and their video posted on JimOnLight.com for all the world to see in its own post on Monday, September 27. Contest participants, this is your time to tell the world to come and vote on your contest entry.

GET BUSY! Tell the world about your video! Tell them to come here and vote!

VOTING:Everyone gets a vote, just choose from the list below. RSS readers, come on over to the site and cast your vote for your favorite video!

Let’s change the future by giving students worldwide the drive to become the next industry rockstars!

I posted the competition rules a while ago for the contest that I am holding for a FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR PRIZE for books and supplies (which, hey, kinda rhymes!) and the cutoff time isMIDNIGHT TONIGHT. So far, we have two entries. TWO.

Does no one want $500 free dollars for books? I gotta believe that this ain’t true.

The two entries that are currently in the running for $500 for books and supplies – Daphne Mir, whom we all know affectionately as @lekogirl, and Zac Weigand’s video. Zack and Daphne are both lighting design students. Check out Daphne‘s first:

There is no time limit or minimum on your video. Make it as short or as long as you like. Just make your case.

Please, no naked anything. It doesn’t help your case, and if you make it public, you better believe people are going to see it.

Be nice. The world would be so much more awesome if everyone was nice and treated each other how they’d love to be treated.

Light Associated Media LLC and JimOnLight.com cannot be held responsible for anything you do that upsets people. I just want to help a student. Don’t put me in a situation where I have to make defensive decisions. By entering the contest with your video you agree not to act like a fool and do stupid things.

There is no time limit or minimum on your video. Make it as short or as long as you like. Just make your case.

Please, no naked anything. It doesn’t help your case, and if you make it public, you better believe people are going to see it.

Be nice. The world would be so much more awesome if everyone was nice and treated each other how they’d love to be treated.

Light Associated Media LLC and JimOnLight.com cannot be held responsible for anything you do that upsets people. I just want to help a student. Don’t put me in a situation where I have to make defensive decisions. By entering the contest with your video you agree not to act like a fool and do stupid things.

I make final decisions on who ultimately gets my $500.

Now go out there and make the best video about your love of light that you possibly can!